Megan Ehert

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• Megan Ehert B.J. Shields

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Levi Straussfirst American manufacturer of blue
jeans

• Who were the first wearers?
• Gold miners
• Outdoor laborers
• Sailors
• Dockworkers
• Values associated with these wearers
• Fraternity
• Solidarity
• Hard-working
• Tough
• Rugged

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The first non-worker consumers

• According to Davis, the first non-workers to
  wear blue jeans were
• Artists (especially in the Southwest)
• Bikers
• Gangs
• Activists Hippies in the 60s
• What values might be associated with these
  groups?
• Anti-establishment
• Opposition to class society
• Freedom of speech and expression
• Rebellion

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Major sales and public relations campaigns were
undertaken in the 60s to disassociate jeans and
their disreputable wearers.

• What types of images do you think would have been
  presented in these campaigns?
• What values might have been communicated in the
  PR campaigns?

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Marketing campaigns were apparently successful,
as jeans became a mass consumed commodity
crossing over from work to leisure wear.

• At this point, what were some of the values
  signified in blue jeans?
• Democracy
• Classlessness
• Fraternalism solidarity
• Freedom
• Play
• Ruggedness/durability

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But as the history of fashion has demonstrated
time and again, no vestmental symbol is
inviolable. All can, and usually will be,
subjected to the whims of those who wish to
convey more or different things about their
person than the pure symbol in its initial
state of signification communicates.
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Why do we all wear jeans?(its not just about
comfort!)

• THE TWO COMPONENTS of the MODERNIST PROJECT in
  DEMOCRACY
• Assimilation
• As human beings, it is important to us that we
  fit into the society to which we belong.
• Cultural assimilation ensures that we will be
  tolerated in our society, rather than be seen as
  outcasts, living in fear of exclusion.
• Group membership
• As social beings, it is important for us to
  identify with others like ourselves.
• Group membership contributes to societal order by
  holding individuals responsible, and encouraging
  democratic principles such as diplomacy and
  negotiation.

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Mass Marketing

• With their mass marketing came new and different
  meanings being sewn into jeans
• These new twists on an American Classic lead to
  what Davis calls the de-democratization of jeans.
• What alterations to blue jeans does Davis discuss
  in reference to their being de-democraticized?
• Eroticization
• labeling / ornamentation
• Designer jeans

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Status Ambivalences

• All of the trends that Davis discusses reflect
  fashions status ambivalences.
• What does Davis mean by this term?
• Blurring of the traditional values previously
  associated with blue jeans.
• Distortion of their traditional image both
  physically and symbolically.
• Status markers evidenced in the distortion of the
  traditional garment.

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The New Images

• What non-traditional images are reflected in the
  updates to blue jeans?
• In fading, cutting, and tearing (the worn look)?
• Class distinctionpoverty?
• Leisure-time / playactive lifestyles?
• Not average?
• Eroticization?
• Gender differences?
• Reinforced sex roles?
• Physique?
• sexualitysexual freedom? Bondage?
• Designer jeans?
• Wealth? Power? Class distinction?
• Loyalty?

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Conclusions

• Jeans can be read at two levels
• (or as Davis states it, two poles).
• Traditional significations
• Status ambivalence / individuality
• How might the values encoded in blue jeans relate
  to Dyers sensibilities?

• Tensions
• Scarcity
• Exhaustion
• Dreariness
• Manipulation
• Fragmentation

• Utopian Solutions
• Abundance
• Energy
• Intensity
• Transparency
• Community

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Part 2 some ads to discuss
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Calvin Klein Jeans ad 1
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(No Transcript)